The Planets: Pluto

In August 2006, astronomers demoted Pluto from planet to icy dwarf.
Unlike real planets, said the scientists, Pluto wasn't powerful enough
to shove anyone else around.* Yet this is the very reason astrologers
will keep using him. Pluto's gravitational force may leave other
celestial bodies undisturbed. But his appearance in the chart, by
aspect or by transit, definitely shakes up people's lives on planet
Earth.

Case in point-a scene from one of my own Pluto transits: On
the living room floor of my rented canyon home, I was sobbing, half
naked,
with my hands around my husband's ankles as he struggled to free
himself out the front door, eventually dragging me onto the pavement.
He was leaving the marriage. I must have threatened suicide, because
in the next scene, my husband had called the fire department. Three
shiny red emergency vehicles appeared in the driveway. As neighbors
gathered and a line of uniformed men marched in to observe me, I
heard my husband explain he had somewhere else to go. I didn't know
astrology at the time. Later I discovered that my natal Saturn was
in Scorpio, conjunct my husband's Ascendant, and Pluto was transiting
that point. My husband was transforming his approach to the world
(Pluto crossing his Ascendant). My Saturn tried hard to fasten onto
him and hold back the stream of events, but instead, the entire structure
of my life was tearing apart (Pluto crossing Saturn).

Pluto went back and forth over my soon-to-be-ex-husband's Ascendant,
moving on to square his Midheaven. During that time, he not only
got divorced, he found sobriety, relocated with his girlfriend to
another state, became a father, and launched a new career. All were
powerful transformations of persona and calling. I was changing too.
It was hard. Many days I lay on the floor and stared up at the sturdiest
ceiling beam. That was how I could end it all. My sister had told
me about a woman she knew whose husband had just left her. With her
newborn baby in the next room, this woman stood on a chair, threw
an extension cord over the ceiling beam, looped the cord around her
neck, then rocked the chair out from under her feet. I didn't do
that, but in every other sense of the word, I did die. It was the
most painful time of my life. And the most rewarding.

For many months I journeyed in the underworld, scooped out, frightened
beyond comforting, forced to surrender. I was so profoundly humbled,
I had to let go of all the naive and selfish notions that had gotten
me there. From that release, I was reborn. In the years since, I've
been so grateful for that transit that when I talk about Pluto, I
have to watch my words. I worry I'll sound as wacky as transformational
psychologist Stan Grof claiming childbirth can be a pleasurable even
orgasmic experience (huh?!). But it's true: the life I enjoy today
began when Pluto crossed my Saturn. Further journeys to the underworld
have brought more gifts. That's why part of me wants to tell people, "A
Pluto transit coming up? What a blessing!"

Of course, part of me still quakes in fear. In the past eighteen
years, I've gone through several Pluto transits. Pluto has conjoined
Mercury, Venus and my Sun; squared my Moon and Ascendant; opposed
my Midheaven. These periods brought distress, transformation, and
rebirth. Yet none arrived with the deadly intensity of that first
Pluto/Saturn experience. Some transits came and went so softly, it's
as though Pluto had merely tip-toed through my life. Even so, I never
underestimate Pluto's power. The year Pluto was about to conjoin
my Sun, I called my favorite psychic. With a nervous laugh I had
to ask, "Am I going to die this year? Or is anyone else I love?" "No," she
said, "but you will be changing quite a bit!"

I'm not a psychic. When a client calls, I can't predict what event
Pluto will bring; nor can I promise whether he'll be mild or fierce.
Yet I do know what lies ahead. All Pluto transits follow the same
basic plot-a combination of the Sumerian myth of Inanna visiting
her dark sister Ereshkigal, and the Greek tale of Pluto, the one
where he abducts sweet Persephone and rapes her in the underworld.
This combined story is what I often tell my clients:[1] There
you are, cavorting innocently enough through the flower field of
your
life, when Pluto suddenly throws his hands around your ankles and
drags you into the underworld. There he strips you naked and hangs
you upside-down on a meat hook. When I meet with clients during
or after their Pluto transits, most say "Yes, that's exactly how
it was."

Pluto stories often begin with an unhappy surprise. The underground
middle of the tale can last a few days, a few weeks, or stretch into
long months, depending on the choices made. All alone you suffer,
until a door opens in your underworld locker and in walks Pluto. "How
are you doing?" he asks. "Miserable," you reply. "Would you like
to get down from that meat hook?" "Yes!!" "Fantastic," says Pluto. "All
I ask is that you give up that which you hold most dear, the thing
you're convinced you can't live without." "Not that!" you cry. "Your
choice," says Pluto. He exits and you continue to writhe in pain.

Pluto wants us to surrender something. But why does he make us suffer
so? Can't a deity give us transformation without the grief? When
I was ten, I asked a similar question of the Christian God: "If
you're so Almighty and can do anything you want, why did you choose
to kill your only son, letting people mock him while driving nails
through his hands and feet? Couldn't you imagine a better way?" The
motif of the suffering hero also appears in indigenous cultures,
where shamanic journeys take initiates through literal or figurative
dismemberment, going to the harrowing brink of death (and sometimes
beyond) before their shamanic powers are won. In Buddhism too, some
of the great masters are initially beaten and humiliated by their
teachers, or made to suffer devastating trials and losses before
their opening into enlightenment. Why do Pluto transits, along with
so many mythic and spiritual traditions, offer the same pain-ridden
story of death, transformation and rebirth?

Here's how it was explained to me years ago, just as Pluto left
my Saturn. In an elementary schoolroom holding the Al-Alon meeting
that stitched me back together, one of the old-timers said: "It's
like this. Let's say you've got a toddler attached to her binkie.
If she keeps sucking the damn pacifier, she'll grow buck teeth. Because
you want her to be beautiful and confident, because you want her
to learn how to soothe herself without the plastic, you take it away.
She shrieks in pain. She doesn't understand you're doing it because
you love her. If she could understand, you'd explain it; but she
doesn't, so you can't. Instead she cries bloody murder until one
day she just lets go. She enters the greater freedom of life without
her binkie. And ever after that, because of losing that binkie, she'll
wear the most beautiful smile."

Pluto operates like a good parent or a wise spiritual master. He
doesn't engineer our suffering; our own confusion does that. It's
not the transit, but our resistance to it that creates the pain.
We're attached to something disempowering; it holds us back. The
crucial part of Pluto's interrogation is to identify "that which
we hold most dear," so we know what to relinquish. Initially we're
frightened it's something external we must lose-a marriage, a child,
our standing in the world. These may or may not disappear. But more
often the real binkie we're sucking on is some stupid notion that
has been holding our limited world in place. That dysfunctional mindset
must be shattered if we're going to grow. To paraphrase Albert Einstein, "We
can't solve our problems using the same mind that created them."

Exhausted from your suffering, you can't hold on anymore. The
next time Pluto appears, you say "Take it. I give up." Immediately
his handmaidens appear; they lift you off that gruesome hook. They
bathe you with scented oils and dress you in new robes. You look
like royalty. "You can now return to the land of the living," says
Pluto. "But before you go, accept this small token of my appreciation." It
is a small treasure chest containing a jewel that is unspeakably
exquisite and rare.

Pluto is the god of wealth. And his transits do enrich us. Despite
his rather grim modus operandi, he aims to leave us better off than
when he found us. Empowerment, not destruction, is his game. After
Pluto opposed my Midheaven, I was blessed with a substantial promotion.
But before that I suffered corporate humiliation and came perilously
close to being fired. My boss' Gemini Sun was conjunct my Midheaven.
He was going through that Pluto transit too. The rumors about his
family troubles were pretty wild. At work, he was angry and I became
his target. Yet I didn't resist or play the victim. I wanted to learn
as much as I could from each of his attacks. What did I give up?
The notion that I, the straight A Phi Beta Kappa success girl, should
always be loved for what I do. It was difficult, but knowing that
Pluto requires surrender greatly reduced my pain. A few months later
a new CFO was hired. At my boss' direction, he scrutinized my performance,
to fire me perhaps. In the end he concluded that I deserved a raise.

The Pluto Clans

Pluto transits also define generations. Spending approximately ten
to twenty years in each sign, Pluto describes the current cultural
obsession plus the enduring interest of the group born then. Its
sign suggests how that group will transform the world. Pluto was
in Cancer from 1913 to 1938. The generation born during these years
(which saw the Depression and two World Wars) was fiercely protective,
security-conscious, and nationalistic. These are deep Cancer traits,
along with its sentimental focus on home and family. Appropriately
enough, this group redefined the American Dream as the version we
still embrace or reject today-raising the proverbial 2.4 kids in
the mortgaged home behind a happy picket fence.

Much has been written about the "look at me" Pluto in Leo group
(1937-1958), aka the Baby Boomers or the "Me Generation." Every zodiac
sign is a reaction against the excesses of its preceding sign; this
is especially true with the differing Pluto generations. If Cancer
is the archetypal parent, Leo is the Divine Child. Creative, exhibitionistic,
playful, and narcissistic, the Boomers' American Dream was to "find
themselves," or at the least, become a rock star. Now in their fifties
and sixties, many are still searching and/or playing in rock and
roll bands. This group has spent plenty of time in therapy poring
over their childhoods, and they've spent plenty of dollars spoiling
their children. They're obsessed with staying young.

I remember the discomfort in my corporation when the Pluto in Virgo
group (1957-1972) came of age. Dubbed "Gen X" or "Slackers," these
flannel-wearing greenies were more down to earth and cynical than
their parents, also highly educated and often underemployed. They
weren't motivated by the same corporate carrots that enticed us Pluto
in Leo managers. We'd reward them with a raise and they'd resign
the following week-to pursue a more interesting opportunity, starting
at the bottom in an entirely different field. So it goes with mutable
signs. Appropriate for earth sign Virgo, this group is ecologically
minded, setting new cultural standards for recycling and organic
foods. Consistent with Virgo's health orientation, this group has
taken alternative medicine mainstream. Hopefully they still have
time to save the planet (and fix our broken health care system too).

You won't find the Pluto-in-Libra people (1971-1984) wearing hiking
boots and flannel. Tattoos, body piercings, body waxing, sculpted "lady
gardens"-this group understands the human body is a work of art.
True to their ruling planet Venus, its females pursue sex without
apology or shame. Along with their metrosexual males, they've transformed
the game of hooking up, giving us speed dating, online match-making,
and busy urban pickup scenes. Beauty-loving, idealistic Libra is
the relationship sign. It also has difficulty making up its mind.
This generation wants it all-exciting dates, a romantic marriage,
adorable babies-but many of these twenty-and thirty-somethings can't
seem to find the ideal mate with whom they'll settle down. "The Bachelor's" rose
ceremonies are designed for this group-as are the slew of other TV
reality shows featuring competing Libra professionals-hair stylists,
interior designers, top chefs, models and fashion designers. Pink
is their new black.

Black will never go out of style with the Pluto in Scorpios (1983-1995).
In middle school this group dyed their hair black, donned Goth pants
and T-shirts, and draped themselves with chains. Pluto's home sign
Scorpio is dark, deep, and attuned to the invisible. Would Harry
Potter have been an international sensation without this group
lining up at midnight to buy the latest volume? The Scorpio generation
isn't troubled by the explicit violence or sexuality of their gangsta
music and video games. Unlike their Libra predecessors, they won't
be carrying tiny dogs into dance clubs, or bringing brightly colored
exercise mats to yoga and Pilates classes. This first wave of this
group has just entered college. Some are fighting in Iraq, perhaps
to return with a dark new set of issues for the culture to contend
with. The deadly school shooters in Jonesboro, Columbine, and Virginia
Tech have emerged as the Slytherins of this group. We'll see how
Scorpio's Harry Potters heroes rise to answer the call. Meanwhile,
the Pluto in Sagittarius (1996-2008) generation is now emerging.
Watch for them to perfect the principles of "The Secret" and otherwise
lighten things up.

Chrysalis of Change

Pluto's culture transformations and the enduring obsessions of its
generations hint at the central paradox of Pluto. By transit we know
him as a powerful change agent, but by natal position he's a force
of tremendous fixity and focus. Pluto can indicate where we're powerful.
He can also show where we get stuck. By house or aspect, he suggests
the familiar hamster wheel of issues we'll chase around for much
of our lives.

Recently I got an email from a client who's been struggling to find
his place in the world, at work and at home (where he still lives
with his parents). "These days everyone seems like the worst
of my family," Dean wrote. "At my job I'm around people
who are abusive, unaware, vile, poisonous, angry, hopeless and mean.
Just like home. It's almost funny how this keeps happening. I wonder
why I never get too far away."

We could say it's Pluto's fault. Pluto is in his 4th house of family
and home, rules his Scorpio Sun in the 6th house of employment, and
squares his Ascendant persona. In the houses Pluto touches there's
a potential for dramatic transformation-and for being denied what
we most desire. A 4th house Pluto may long for nurture and support
but never find it. With Pluto we can program our own failures, unconsciously
provoking the very scenarios we most hate and fear. In the 6th we
may yearn to be a powerful influence in our work environment, yet
find ourselves consistently at odds with co-workers and bosses. With
Pluto square Ascendant, we may crave loyalty and appreciation from
our relationships, but find ourselves locked in power struggles,
or worse, ignored.

"Hades," the ancient Greek word for the underworld, originally
meant "unseen." Invisibility is an important feature of
our Pluto landscape; unseen forces encircle us down in Pluto's cave.
Above ground we feel powerless, as our internal demons gather strength
in their dark hiding place. To vanquish them, we must bring them
into the light. This means becoming conscious of them-which was the
great obsession during Pluto's transit through Scorpio. In the eighties
we went on a cultural binge of exposing secrets, raising awareness
of the physical and psychological abuses that were previously hushed
up: domestic violence, addiction, child molestation and incest. Depth
psychology moved into the mainstream, transforming astrology as well.
Astrologers took off their fortune teller turbans and became counselors
identifying psychological issues.

Yet as Pluto shifted into Sagittarius, we grew weary of the exposes.
My clients and I were less interested in poking through the particular
tyranny of their childhoods. Not that childhood is irrelevant. It's
just that Pluto's run through Scorpio erupted into an orgy of psychological
blame, ironically undermining the empowerment we initially hoped
to gain from our new insights. Given the potential for victimization
in the areas Pluto touches, it became a tricky business, validating
clients' difficulties without increasing their sense of being thwarted
and abused.

When Pluto entered philosophical Sagittarius in the mid-nineties,
our hunger for meaning grew. We wanted something more numinous. We
wanted the planets to give us Sagittarian things-readings that were
inspiring, spiritual, more adventurous and optimistic. No longer
feeling caged by our past, we wanted to know what we could do now to
change our future. Astrologers looked at Pluto through a new paradigm:
now he represented the matrix of our own beliefs. This gave us new
power, because beliefs were something we could change. Our early
Pluto experience was just one reality. We could, like spiritual adepts,
enter others.

Pluto will be in Capricorn soon. (Editor's note: Dana Gerhardt wrote this article when Pluto still was in Sagittarius. The planet entered Capricorn on 26th January 2008 and moved backwards again in Sagittarius in June 2008. But since 27th November 2008 Pluto entered definitely the zodiacal sign of Capricorn.) The paradigm will shift again. There is, however, an enduring method to Pluto's madness. Through
this planet we're meant to earn our power. According to
author and teacher Carolyn Myss, this may be the very purpose of
our lives-to learn the management of power.[2] As Pluto moves through
the zodiac, he teaches that there are at least twelve ways of doing
so! But what gets in the way? From Myss' vantage as a medical intuitive,
she long puzzled over why some people couldn't heal. As an astrologer
I've often had a similar dilemma. Why do some people never get beyond
their familiar issues, seemingly unable to grow in the directions
they desire? Myss suggests one culprit is the tremendous naiveté of
people, in particular the belief that becoming "conscious" or "spiritual" means
the end of all bad things. "This is," she says, "a child's notion." When
you look at the great teachers from Jesus to Buddha, notes Myss,
none has ever made a safe or perfect place for themselves. What does
this mean? Perhaps that our Pluto difficulties shouldn't be feared
or avoided. Rather we should value them.

As Pluto enters Capricorn, our Sagittarian naiveté (ie, "The Secret's" claim
that we can create anything we desire) will be refined by
Capricorn's pragmatism. Pluto transits always bring new ways of seeing
reality. Traditional approaches will gain renewed popularity in many
fields, including astrology. We'll surely see changes in Capricorn-ruled
institutions-governments, leadership, business. We can already smell
these coming.

But it's not necessary to get too far ahead of ourselves. Transformation
is inevitable. Going through it has its own rewards. Pluto simply
asks that we surrender fearlessly to the shifting, unpredictable
quality of life, to its fantastic dance of energy. Along with its
transformation symbols, the Phoenix and the snake, we could add the
humble caterpillar. Consider the following Pluto meditation: "I
am caterpillar. The leaves I eat taste bitter now. But dimly I sense
a great change coming. What I offer you, humans, is my willingness
to dissolve and transform. I do that without knowing what the end-result
will be; so I share with you my courage too."[3]

* Thanks to amateur astronomer Laurel Kornfeld http://laurele.livejournal.com for informing me that the debate about Pluto's planet status is ongoing. Writes Ms. Kornfeld, "Only four percent of the IAU voted on the controversial demotion, and most are not planetary scientists. Their decision was immediately opposed in a formal petition by hundreds of professional astronomers." You can find the petition of astronomers who opposed the demotion here: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/planetprotest/

1. I am grateful to Georgia Stathis, from whom I first heard
this basic story of a Pluto transit during her talk "Pluto:
The Planet of Choice," at the First International Cycles & Symbols
Conference, July 26-30, 1990, San Francisco, CA.

2. This material is paraphrased from the following tape: Caroline
Myss, Ph.D., Anatomy of the Spirit (Sounds True Audio,
1996).

3. From Joanna Macy, "The Council of all Beings," in World
As Lover,
World As Self, (Parallax Press, 1991, p. 205)

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